1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information managing system, an information managing method, and an information managing program for managing various items of information of objects to be retrieved, and more particularly to an information managing system, an information managing method, and an information managing program which are capable of assisting users in retrieving information.
2. Description of the Related Art
When the user is to retrieve a file or a piece of information, it is the general practice for the user to use a full-text retrieval system or a retrieval system similar to a full-text retrieval system. Specifically, the user enters a keyword indicative of contents to be retrieved (hereinafter referred to as “retrieval query”) into the retrieval system. The retrieval system then outputs a sequence of items of information relevant to the retrieval query as a list. The user retrieves desired information based on the list.
According to another process of retrieving a file or a piece of information, the user classifies and saves files using directories in advance. Then, the user retrieves a desired file by browsing the directory tree.
JP-A No. 2000-20555 discloses a method of providing user-appropriate information based on a user profile vector determined by the action of the user and a contents vector determined by the contents of information.
According to the retrieval processes using the retrieval system and the directory tree, unless the user explicitly recognizes the information of an object to be retrieved, the user is unable to retrieve appropriate information and file. For example, unless the user produces a keyword with respect to contents to be retrieved for keyword-based retrieval, the user fails to retrieve desired information. Therefore, even though the user uses one of the above retrieval processes, it is difficult for the user to find useful information that the user has not recognized. The reason is that the user cannot retrieve information unless the user specifies objects to be retrieved.
According to the method disclosed in JP-A No. 2000-20555, it is possible to provide the user with information taking to some extent into account the relevance between the action of the user and the contents of information. However, the disclosed method is unable to provide the user with information taking into account the relevance between a plurality of items of information. Therefore, the user cannot be provided with useful information representing the relevance between a plurality of items of information.